Photo couresty of Thomas SmolkaStudents from St. John’s Lutheran School, from the left, Daniel Vasquez and James DeSocio, teleconference with robotics students from Jamaica College in Kingston, Jamaica. CASTLETON CORNERS — During their rookie year last season, they dazzled judges at the First Robotics competition and came home with a trophy. Now, students in the robotics program at St. John’s Lutheran (SJL) School are serving as international ambassadors for the initiative.

The team of fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, under the direction of faculty moderator Thomas Smolka, has been teleconferencing with robotics students from Jamaica College in Kingston, Jamaica. The Jamaican students have been trying to build a robot and set up a team for competition.

During the calls, via Webcam, Smolka and his students have been offering input on how the robotics league works and advice on how the Jamaican students can get their team off and running in competition.

To facilitate the conversation between teams, SJL students have been making use of a new piece of software, called TokBox. TokBox is a free piece of Web conferencing software that allows up to 20 video feeds and the option to import YouTube videos and various collaboration tools. Smolka’s class set up two wireless video feeds in the classroom using this software.

“My students were very excited to be involved,” Smolka said. “The idea of spreading their hobby to students in another country was very exciting.”

“Besides advice regarding robotics, our students have been asking questions about weather and culture,” he said.

Photo couresty of Thomas SmolkaParticipating in the program are students, from the left, Billy Hemming, Sam Corso, and Elizabeth Owen.The class invited the “TechnoChix,” another robotics team from Pleasantville High School in Westchester County, to join the video conferences. Students have also linked-up with adult mentors from Pennsylvania and the Bronx and engineers from the Boeing Corp.

The technology enables everyone to see each other face-to-face and exchange ideas and inspiration for building their respective robots.

The college students from Jamaica are the first international team to join the league, and will be traveling to New York in March to compete with New York schools at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. The SJL team will be competing as well, for the second year.

“I am happy to help get another team started,” said James DeSocio. “Talking to them lets us swap ideas and learn more about different ways to design, build and program the robot. It gave me ideas to change in my building and designing strategy.”

“Talking to them and other teams gave me ideas about ways I can improve and construct my team’s robot,” explained Daniel Vazquez. “Helping the other team felt good for our team. I would be happy to do it again and I look forward to meeting and competing with or against them in March.”